Category: In the Media
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In the media: Simon Birmingham attacks university vice-chancellors’ $1m salaries
Australian Financial Review, 1 May 2017 By Tim Dodd Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham is gearing up for an unprecedented propaganda war on universities, targeting their healthy surpluses, lavish new buildings and university vice-chancellors’ million dollar salaries in an effort to swing public support behind the higher education budget cuts…
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In the media: Radio Interview: Vicki Thomson on ABC PM, speaking on rural medical training
Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson speaking on the need for viable postgraduate medical training in rural areas, as opposed to a new medical school. Click on the link below to listen.
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: University research repays its state funding in spades
The Australian, 26 April 2017 By Ian Jacobs Complex products and processes — whether highly useful (smartphones) or absolutely essential (lifesaving cancer drugs) — frequently begin with basic research in a university, before being commercially adopted for development. The smartphone market is dominated by two giants, Samsung and Apple, but…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Pipeline to a robust rural medical system
The Australian, 26 April 2017 By Christina Mitchell The perfect medical education system is neither easy nor simple to deliver. But we must guard against emotive, kneejerk decisions that masquerade as good policy that may only make the situation worse. There has been some strong lobbying to see the establishment…
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In the media: Podcast: Universities unhappy over axing of 457 Visas
Please click on the link below to access podcast.
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In the media: Universities dismayed by 457 visa threat to senior academic staff
The Australian, 20 April 2017 By Julie Hare Vice-chancellors of the nation’s leading universities say the government crackdown on 457 visas and its removal of more than 200 jobs from its skilled occupation list — including life scientists, civil engineers, historians, microbiologists and archaeologists — would catch world-class researchers and…
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In the media: ‘They’re not flipping burgers’: Universities cry foul over axing of 457 visas
Sydney Morning Herald, 20 April 2017 Michael Koziol It’s the key question for universities grappling with the Turnbull government’s abolition of 457 visas: can they still bring in the big brains they often need from overseas? As part of the changes ushered in by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday,…
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In the media: 457 visa changes may stop universities hiring ‘super talents’
Australian Financial Review, 20 April 2017 By Tim Dodd Universities have warned Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull that some of our most eminent scientists, such as Fiona Wood, Ian Frazer and Brian Schmidt, could have been shut out of the country by the controversial abolition of 457 visas announced on Tuesday.…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Government’s 457 reforms threaten research, innovation
The Australian, 20 April 2017 By Duncan Ivison Australia is home to some of the world’s leading universities and researchers. It’s partly because we have welcomed researchers from all over the world to pursue their careers with us, whether in the life sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities or creative…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Universities to focus on PhD training push in India
Australian Financial Review, 9 April 2017 By Vicki Thomson As it celebrates 70 years of Independence, India has a Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, with a determined and strategic vision for his nation’s future through the modernisation of the economy. Equipping India’s population with the skills to participate in this new…
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In the media: Australia’s elite universities seize opportunity of Malcolm Turnbull’s India visit to boost student numbers
Australian Financial Review, 9 April 2017 By Tim Dodd For Australia’s prestigious research universities, the Group of Eight (Go8), this week’s visit to India by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Education Minister Simon Birmingham is an opportunity to be seized. It could help solve a major problem, which is that…
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In the media: Turnbull commissions India inquiry as FTA talks bog down
Austyralian Financial Review 9 April 2017 By Phillip Coorey New Delhi: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has commissioned a top-level inquiry into the economic potential of engaging with India amid growing concerns that efforts to tap into the rapidly developing regional power have stagnated. Mr Turnbull, who flew into New Delhi…
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In the media: Educators go to India to turn Trump and Brexit to Australia’s advantage
Australian Financial Review, 9 April 2017 By Tim Dodd Australia is sending a 120-strong education delegation to India this week on the back of the prime ministerial visit, with Education Minister Simon Birmingham leading the group which aims to build stronger university ties, win more international students and boost Australia’s…
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In the media: ATO’s proposed bursary changes could hurt the poor: Go8
The Australian, 5 April 2017 By Julie Hare An Australian Taxation Office review of whether education-related scholarships should continue to be tax exempt has been described as “deeply concerning” and could have a “damaging impact on collaboration and innovation in the economy”. In response to the review, the Group of…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Go8 wary of poor policy settings
By Vicki Thomson The Australian We grow up learning that the shortest route between two points is a straight line. And the straight line often missed by those with their hands on Canberra policy levers is that which connects higher education to the economic development driven by Australia’s international education…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: More PhDs need to be channelled into industry
By Laura Poole-Warren The Australia At first glance, the statistics might suggest Australia is producing too many doctorates of philosophy. Of the 10,000 or so students who complete their PhD every year only a very small percentage will go on to enjoy an uninterrupted academic career to professor level. But…
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In the media: ‘Grad Connect’ to help foster business ties with Australia and China
Please click on the link below for news coverage on the first graduate recruitment portal launched in China by the Group of Eight.
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: It’s time to charge a realistic price for uni degrees
By Dr Michael Spence Financial Review Last week, John Dawkins took to pen and paper to call for comprehensive higher education reform. This call is a welcome contribution to an important policy debate that has gone rather quiet of late. As Minister for Education under the Hawke and Keating governments,…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Something has to give on sustainable policy
The Australian By Vicki Thomson As we head into the home stretch of the federal election campaign it is a fair question to ask what next for the nation’s universities. Little has been said from either of the major parties and it would appear to the casual observer that we…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Other countries spend big on R & D. Why don’t we?
Australian Financial Review By Vicki Thomson For those of us in the higher education sector there was that very special one day last year when the positive vision from Prime Minister Malcolm Turabull was infectious. He told us that our future was innovation. To see a prime minister who understands…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Large growth in student number is threatening sustainability of university system
The Conversation By Dr Michael Spence A successful innovation nation needs three things from its universities: excellence in teaching and research, high levels of participation, and equity of access. The current policy settings, while having achieved requisite levels of participation, have failed to substantially boost equity of access and have presented governments…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Go8 and University Funding
Australian Financial Review By Vicki Thomson The storm of media and political niggling over the past few weeks about Universities, their quality, their cost, their entry transparency and their funding is to be expected. It’s what happens when public policy errors are made, left to fester without any well-thought-through restoration…
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In the media: Opinion Editorial: Australia’s higher education sector is one of the best in the world. Fact.
The Australian By Michael Spence and Vicki Thomson Plus, Australia relies on its universities to deliver far more of its research than any other first world nation. Fact. Australia’s research is rated as world class. Fact. Australia’s innovation agenda will rely heavily on universities to drive it. Fact. The evidence…
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In the media: Graduate earning power study goof admitted
Australian Financial Review, 18 September 2015 By Tim Dodd One of Australia’s top economic research centres has withdrawn its controversial finding that graduates of the elite Group of Eight universities earn less through their careers than people who study at less prestigious institutions. The Melbourne Institute of Economic and Social Research…